Bubblewrap
by fnb333
Summary: A collection of oneshots revolving around Team 8. May or may not include Shino. Review and I will reply. THIRD ONESHOT ADDED
1. First

I don't know about this one It's long, and if you don't feel like reading much, then you've come to the wrong place XD

I put this in 'general' cause I'm still thinking about the other one-shots I'm gonna add on to this story, if this goes down well (hint hint) But do not be misled, cause there's supposed to be a variety in here somewhere

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters, including Naruto himself...though I don't know why I'm disclaiming him because he isn't even in the story...**

It was a searing and bothersome day, to say the least. The heat was intense as crowds reached their peak amongst the overly populated market of Konoha.

A tall lady pulled insistently on Hinata's small hand, sometimes even going as far as to grab hold of her forearm and yank it forwards painfully to make sure she kept up.

Hinata stumbled as her foot collided with a much bigger, harder boot, causing the child's overly quick pace to falter. Earning herself another yank on the arm as she did so.

"Please try to keep up, Hinata-chan," scolded the maid in agitation, carefully maneuvering the heavy bags of shopping, along with the small child, through the dense, bustling crowd.

She struggled momentarily to squeeze past a group of people who had stopped to socialize, causing Hinata to accidentally walk straight into someone's briefcase, her neck reeling back painfully when the offending article connected painfully with her face, up and over her head.

She barely managed to catch a glimpse of the man holding the case, who continued to talk away as if Hinata hadn't just broken her face on his briefcase, which probably held no more then a couple of files full of paper. Paper wouldn't have hurt as much, though.

Hinata unwillingly let out a soft 'oomph' as she was pushed aside roughly by another group of hasty passer bys. The hand holding hers was forced to twist back painfully.

"Hinata-chan," began the maid once more, finally stopping for a moment to sort out her 'problem child'. "You must look where you're going when you walk. You can't just expect people to move out of the way for you all the time, especially as you grow older."

She paused, and looked as if she was going to say something else; something that wasn't called for. But, she fought against it, and with her mouth shut tightly, she stiffly turned to Neji. The said boy was standing there patiently, clinging to at least two bags of groceries piled up in his scrawny arms. The bags continued to tower over him as he waited silently.

"Neji-kun _doesn't _need me to hold his hand, because he's a big boy who can already look out for himself. You could learn something from him if you actually pay attention once in a while."

Neji shifted his weight onto his other foot in what could only be described as painful discomfort. He really didn't feel all that big right now for some reason. Still, he kept a close eye on his cousin's face, looking for the slightest twitch or grimace. Everything was seen in a neon light; _everything_ could be seen. But he couldn't find her reaction.

"Hinata-chan, look at me, please," the tall lady persisted, using her more stern and authoritive tone as she pushed away Hinata's long, out of control fringe to better look at her face. "This is no good. What will your father say when he sees you looking like that tonight?"

Hinata merely mumbled a reply, her eyes remaining at her feet the whole time. She couldn't help but think though. What difference would it really make? She had passed her father dozens of times this morning, and he hadn't mentioned her poor line of vision, so there couldn't really be that much of a problem. Come to think of it, he hadn't spoken to her at all today.

There was a moment of rustling as a few bags were dropped to the floor.

The maid before her squeezed a small shoulder, still waiting for her answer, being both patient and impatient at the same time. Their nanny was usually a nice lady, but when one of them managed to get her angry, Hinata felt she couldn't do anything but feel sad, and a bit guilty.

Hinata swallowed thickly, her throat beginning to close up all of a sudden. Why was she doing this? Drawing attention from people who seemed to tower over her, like strange buildings in a city. She felt like a normal little house compared to them. She blinked hard, and did her best not to speak. If she did, then the lady opposite her might see the painful lump at the back of her throat; then she would get into even more trouble.

From the side, Neji shifted the weight in his arms tentatively, narrowly being missed by another person in a hurry as he overbalanced slightly. Their nanny's attention had now been set on his small movement, so at least Hinata would have a chance to calm down.

Hinata had a problem with situations like that, and she knew it. She was confused about how she felt, but knew that was how it was. She would be like that more and more often; whenever someone's attention was on her for all the wrong reasons. She would cry and hiccup and smear the tears all across her face in her haste to remove them, never once taking her eyes away from the ground.

Neji knew these things.

Things like how she would be most unwilling to play when it came to those worse case scenarios. That would mean that he'd have no excuse to skip training. It wasn't too bad, but you could only get so good at something before it becomes a chore, and chores were boring. A lot like what they were doing now.

For once, he hadn't complained. If he did, the woman in front of him would start shouting, and then Hinata would start crying. Which was what she was about to do now. It was just so _obvious_.

The lady crouched before Hinata seemed to take silence for her answer, and finally moved to stand up straight as she made her decision. Dealing with children was just a simple task of thinking a few steps ahead each time. More than one step had proved many a time to be as essential as it was necessary, much to her irritation if she ever found herself tired or dehydrated.

She had only dealt with a handful of Hyuuga children, but she knew how there minds worked. A little more complex then your average infant, but nothing she couldn't ultimately handle.

What Neji had thought he'd done with his otherwise nonchalant action had actually proved to be the tie-breaker of the woman's thoughts. Her mind was indeed made up.

Her field of vision slipped from the child in front of her, past a tower of grocery bags to settle on the small building amongst others behind them. She couldn't see Neji's face, but she knew that he would have been watching anyway; she couldn't stop him and neither would she have cared to.

None of it mattered, however, as they were now even further behind their busy schedule. They still had to make sure that the drawing room was in order, and then they were to rearrange the family scrolls in alphabetical order, which was something that just had to be done.

The last time a maid of the Hyuuga household had neglected to do so, the whole Head family was thrown into disarray; completely and utterly disgusted at the fact that a branch family member's training log had accidentally been recorded into the scroll that was reserved for the Head Family. No one had spoken of the incident since.

The kitchen, however, was in its own crisis, and needed to be fully replenished before the cooks made a start on tonight's banquet.

The nanny used her free hand to fish around one of the grocery bags, various bottles and Jars chinking together as they were unknowingly shifted. Any spare change that she would have been too lazy to put in her purse would be there somewhere, hidden within creases of the pliable paper.

Finally digging up a sufficient amount, she pocketed the money while drawing the shopping back into her grasp. Hinata felt compelled to pay close attention to her nanny's actions, the feeling of both curiosity and fear gripping her already aching throat and chest.

They were distracting other people, the three of them. Whilst almost everyone else moved along with the flow, a small group caused many hurrying people to make a bypass around them, occasionally glancing to see if they could work out why the three had stopped. Hinata felt the eyes coming from everywhere, making her feel dizzy and nauseous as they pried for answers.

Before Neji had any real time to analyze his cousins reactions, he felt the weight in his small arms intensify two-fold, wheezing slightly as he felt a bottle of milk dig into his ribs.

It took another moment and someone else pushing past him roughly to realize that the added weight was just more of what he had already been carrying.

The tall, spiteful lady had given her bags to him. He suddenly felt very closed off and fragile as the weight compromised his balance.

The said woman dragged a cold-sweating Hinata behind her once again.

The whole world seemed to be moving around him, dodging the only boy in the world right now who was standing still. It didn't feel right.

Neji was rudely pulled from his thoughts as said world threw another person at him. This time he wasn't so lucky, and pitched forward a little too far in his haste to avoid another scrape. He tried to catch himself before he tumbled completely, struggling to reinstate his grip on the tower of food.

He fought strongly to resist the tears as he felt a small thump land on his foot and roll away down the street. He bit his lip in exasperation as he watched the offending piece of fruit stop in the middle of the people current, suffering a kick or two from the odd passer-by.

The small boy wasted no time in staggering haphazardly over to the missing orange.

Sadly, his frustration was doubled as the fruit only seemed to move further and further away every time someone passed it carelessly. Neji's footsteps became less calculated and more frantic as the bags in his grasp disagreed strongly with the slow descent towards the rogue orange.

* * *

Hinata swallowed nervously; her mind a cross between racing and remaining blank. She made a stubborn attempt at trailing behind, her feet hastily back peddling as the nanny's grip intensified and yanked once more. 

This was a place she had never even seen before, despite its apparent popularity. She hated it. This was a place alive with noise and smell, a select group of very well groomed people tending to others who were not so well groomed. The sound of a radio jingled on in the background, barely audible above the _talking._

Thinking was a luxury as she was whisked off in an unnecessary rush towards a huge plank of wood. Well polished wood.

She craned her neck upwards to get an unflattering view up her maid's nose, but the much taller lady was happy this time. She was talking to someone behind this newly discovered table with a plank stuck onto it.

Their conversation seemed rushed and breathless, and from what she could she, a smile played in her nanny's eyes as well as on her lips. Yes, she was happy.

She tried to listen to their up beat, out of breath conversation, but there were many words that she didn't understand and had never heard before, so she tried to fill them in with her own words.

They were saying some even weirder things now, about how a friend, who seemed to be a boy, had left her in a bag of rubbish with nothing more then a phone who had been calling her something that left her deviated and outlawed.

They had moved on to talk about other things, but they were speaking too fast with wild hand gestures and odd facial expressions. At least, she knew one of then was. She couldn't see the other person, but she hoped it was a girl from the length of her nails that occasionally jutted out from the edge of the large table.

Oh wait...

"And, that would be Hinata-chan there now?"

There it was again.

"Yeah, that's her"

Someone was talking about her. Somewhere close.

A gasp was heard, and Hinata looked up as the breathy exclamation reached her ears as one of the voices from before. A woman was looking down at her with a smile like a slice of freshly cut apple; her eyes holding a just little too much awe, as if she was putting it on.

"She is _so_ _cute_!"

She hadn't really heard that word in a while. Her mother used to say it to her all the time, and Neji had even said it once or twice, but it was too long ago now. It must have meant something nice, and Hinata blushed in shame and turned to the floor and her small, mud laced shoes.

The girly voice, now coming from what she knew was a girl, giggled and sighed.

"My little girl gets like that all the time, especially when we pass the Uchiha compound," she paused to pick herself up from where her upper body had been sprawled over the table. "It's like her eyes are glued to the same spot until she's sure it's safe to look up. Kid's today, huh?"

Her nanny smiled and laughed accordingly, a hand shooting up to cover her mouth like it was something wrong to laugh that loudly with people watching. Which it was.

That must have been the first time she had made eye-contact today. Besides the quick glance she had given Neji in the store as he was dumped with two bags instead of one. She didn't get given any.

When asked, the maid had told her that Neji offered to take the bags from her, because he was a gentleman. Hinata felt warmth from the endearing offer, but it turned cold when she saw Neji struggle all the way out the door, his face screwed up in a pained grimace. She couldn't ignore the scowl that was sent her way as he past her.

Hinata's daze was put on hold as the soft jingle of a bell reached her ears. The lady at the table seemed to have noticed it as well, and was smiling that smile again.

Hinata followed her gaze towards the door, finding Neji standing there looking quite solemn, then seeing the bell that was placed a little ways above the door. That was a strange place to put a bell if it was just going to get hit every time someone opened the door. She wondered why she hadn't noticed it on the way in.

"Neji-kun..." the maid began, turning around to get a full view of the child. "Where are the grocery bags?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Hinata waited. She was upset that her nanny had run out of the shop and left her all on her own, but she was even sadder when Neji hadn't even said a word to her while he was there, however short that time was.

And she waited.

Neji had seemed rather reluctant to smile much lately, although she wasn't really one to talk. He had gotten colder; their play time always turning into very one-sided fist fights, in which she would feel bruised and sore afterwards. He had even gone as far as to break her wrist once, but, with one of the maids by his side, he eventually apologized. Neji was Neji, and that was how he had always been to her, ever since she could remember.

This place was still noisy, and it smelt funny. She was stuck in a chair lined up with a few others, but the comfy looking chairs on the other side of the room were more special. They could spin round.

She let out a long breath she hadn't realized she's been holding. She felt calmer then usual, and looked round to see if she was right as to why. Everyone was busy and the place was noisy...but the only person there who had given her a second glance was the lady with the pink hair.

Someone coughed loudly next to her.

There she was, a big girl with long, dull brown hair pulled back tightly in a ponytail; sharp eyes focused directly on the magazine in front of her. She looked bored. And a little scary. She had color to her face, but not the kind that gave away any sign of bad health or how long she had been outside. Just red marks.

Hinata wondered why she hadn't seen more people like that. She had seen clowns and people at festivals who looked kind of the same, but that was normal for them. She couldn't see anyone else with the same markings here. Not from the people whose faces she could see.

But no matter how much she hated being stared at; she couldn't help herself this time. The person sitting next to the scary girl reading a magazine with her arm draped over the backing of the chair was...funny looking. She'd been called that too many times too count, but she couldn't remember ever using it on someone else. She tried to use it in an argument with Neji, but that had just ended badly.

This boy, or girl, had a thick coat lined with fur that seemed to clump in patches; a bit dog-eared maybe. It was muddy and torn in places, but he or she still wanted to wear it. The hood left a shadow over the person's face, but there was still an air radiating off of them that seemed aggravated. Angry and sulking.

This person, a small person, a child shifted slightly, and the well padded arms tied closer together around their chest in a stubborn way. It was mid-summer, but their coat was still there, clinging defiantly as though the owner hadn't even noticed it was still on them. She felt a shred of relief float in her stomach somewhere. There was someone else who did that too.

As if on cue, the big girl coughed again. While Hinata wondered weather or not that girl had a cold or not and when she should make the decision to move a seat downwards, the sound of a glossy page being ripped loudly resounded in her ears, despite all the other noises in the room. She looked back up to see the girl tilt her face a little in her direction and snarl lightly as she tossed the ruined magazine onto a small table and began rooting for another one.

Hinata continued to unwillingly stare, and before she knew it, the girl had found the next magazine and was making her way back into sitting as she had been before, her long, dirty nails scraping across the laminated wood as they drew away. A seething glare was sent her way.

Hinata looked away quickly. Her heart was racing a bit too fast and her eyes had widened, making her feel the newly formed cold sweat even more.

She wondered why people weren't staring.

"Hinata-Chan?"

Standing in front of her like that had made her jump, and Hinata looked to find the one person in building who knew her name.

"Did I...did I take someone's seat?"

Pink Hair smiled, and held out her hand towards Hinata, her body twisted round towards the other line of chairs across the room.

Nanny had looked like that not too long ago, only she wasn't smiling.

She was swept away to the other side of the room; the side with all the comfy looking chairs that could spin around in a full circle without stopping. Maybe she had done something right for a change.

She looked over to the other people sitting on the chairs to see if they were impressed or jealous maybe. They were all too busy talking to one another; chatting away to themselves about things she would probably never understand.

It bothered her. Her mother had once told her that she was at a certain age in her life where it was only natural for her to act the way she did, but that was over a year ago now. She was waiting for this big change to happen; for everything to suddenly seem so simple and straight forward. She waited and waited, all the while watching other children of her age and below playing and laughing with each other as if they hadn't just met five minutes ago. Whatever was supposed to happen to her, it was sure taking it's time about it.

She still struggled when asked a direct question, and cried every time she was asked to appear in front of her father for something as simple as a 'good morning' or a 'goodnight'.

There was the sound of fabric being ruffled in the wind, and Hinata was surprised when a cape or an apron was pulled over her entire front, like a bib.

While Hinata was getting used to not being able to see or move her hands, Pink Hair had brought a cart of some kind over, and took a pair of scissors from the top shelf. She placed a cool palm over Hinata's forehead, sweeping her bangs away from her face like a curtain.

"That's better," Pink Hair exclaimed with a cheery sigh in her voice, like she felt relieved of something. "Now I can see you lovely eyes, Hyuuga-chan."

Hinata must have been blushing. Either that or the woman was just generally cold.

The said person looked thoughtful for a minute, but then dipped down to Hinata's eye level to look her in the eye through the mirror. Hinata wondered why. She wasn't looking at the mirror, and she wouldn't look at her. She didn't want to.

"Now, just how much do you want me to take off this fringe of yours?"

"Ex...Excuse me?" What was happening, what was going on, this wasn't good, why exactly was she here, why why WHY was this woman pointing a pair of scissors at her head?

Pink Hair looked mildly stunned for a moment as she understood Hinata's confusion. Then the laughter came.

Hinata may not have been bright for her age, but she knew when she was being laughed at, and it was embarrassing, making a dirty, low feeling settle in her stomach. The opposite of those twists you got when you fell from a tree, or if you were clinging on to the tree for your life.

The lady seemed the dip in her already nervous expression, and calmed herself as she wiped her watering eyes with the back of her hand.

"Seriously now, kid, how much of your fringe would you like to get rid of?"

"I don't really..."

"How about...here?" Pink Hair looked up expectantly, a finger ruling a line across half of her fringe.

"Well I..."

"Okay, that's great..."

Hinata looked up through the mirror quickly. This was unfair, and she was ready to proclaim that herself, without the other woman's consent. Maybe not now, but...

Her legs dangled underneath her as the ground was brought even further away from escape, and she noticed the shelf in front of her lined with bottles of different sizes and colors. The name of each brand plastered proudly in various fonts for everyone to see, but Hinata couldn't even read what the description said underneath it. There were lines over some of the letters and no matter how many times she said it in her head, the words still wouldn't flow.

She looked away, into the mirror, at herself. It was nerve-racking when people looked you in the face, but it was worse when you had to face up to see what other people saw when they looked at it.

She let her eyes wander from the mirror that was not her friend to a lady sitting a few seats down, her hair being poofed and thread with stuff from the same type of bottles that were in front of her right now, and she was sure that that was part of the reason why this place smelt the way it did.

Other then that, it would be the smell of Pink Hair. She smelt nice, like her mother did after she used some special liquid that looked like the stuff that her father liked to drink at night.

"O-kay, Hinata-chan!" A singy-song voice exclaimed to bring attention to the owner. "Are you sure that's how much you want to cut off before it's all done and dusted?"

The proclamation of unfairness could wait.

"But, I think--"

She was cut off when a low growl sliced through the room, causing a few people to look round curiously, scissors snipping aimlessly.

Hinata suddenly wondered if you were even allowed to bring dogs into a place like this.

Pink Hair cleared her throat and flicked her hair over her shoulder in nonchalance, bringing her hands up to Hinata's fringe once again.

Before any cutting could happen -consented or not- they were interrupted again by another low growl, followed by a yelp and sounds of a violent struggle.

It would have been stupid not to look.

By then, everyone was staring at the hooded person next to the scary girl, and Hinata wondered why they would want to disturb someone so angry anyway.

That person was being manhandled by two older, stronger looking people...although one of them was the scary girl sitting on the next seat, and she was still reading her magazine while gripping a struggling forearm. Hinata deeply empathized with the hooded person.

Hooded Person was being taken by force to the nearest comfy chair, having to be dragged by a strong looking male with tight clothes, and the child was already trying to bite its way to freedom.

The girl who had been sitting next to Hooded Person did nothing. Bar read.

Finally, after much cursing and blood, the foul tempered youth was close enough to be lifted from under the arms like a rag doll and was swung onto the chair next to Hinata.

The child seemed to have calmed down a bit and had returned to his sulking; arms folded tightly, chin stuck out defiantly with a pout. Yes, it must have been a boy. Most of the Hooded Person's face had been unveiled slightly as the shadow of the clumpy fur lifted with the struggle.

Hinata spotted a mark along the side of his face. Judging by the color, it looked sore. He let out a groan that could have been a growl had he just put that little bit more feeling into it, before he made a big thing about shifting in his place uncomfortably. His mouth started to curve into a snarl she could have recognized, revealing a pair of very very very sharp looking incisors.

Hinata felt itchy as he continued to fidget and squirm in his place. Father had warned her about this once. About the _other_ inhabitants of Konoha. 'An annoying itch that needed to be scratched...'

She was feeling the meaning as her ankles rubbed together in an attempt to shift the fabric of her not-so-soft sock against the irritated skin of her foot.

Though, she didn't get very far.

Her head was twisted roughly into place by two hands clamped to either side of her round face, looking at the mirror to see Pink Hair's now thin lips and scary eyes. The woman spared a glance at the boy next to them, before digging a pair of scissors from her pouch.

Hinata's eyes squeezed shut in anticipation as a shadow passed over her head.

The shadow stopped, and then went away completely. After a few minutes, Hinata opened her eye to see why her doom was to be prolonged. Pink Hair was talking to the same man with tight clothes that had dragged the aggressive boy across the floor towards his seat.

Her tone was sharp and clipped, her hands gesturing wildly as they had been before at the table. She looked angry, and Hinata suddenly wondered if she had somehow managed to upset this usually nice and pretty looking person.

She seemed to want to look at the other boy a lot, and kept turning back towards him every few minutes. Maybe she wanted to cut his hair instead of hers.

The woman's voice grew more and more agitated, and the boy in the chair was bent on making her even more upset by back-chatting every octave of malice and disgust.

Hinata was uncomfortably shocked.

Pink Hair was not herself. This was not Pink Hair. This person had the same hair, and they looked alike, but at the same time, they didn't. The pretty warm face had...mutated into this ugly looking grimace that lined and marred her face with all that pent up fury and rage. Her voice was louder, and no longer had that sigh to it, instead shrieking out protests and words of hate.

Everyone really was staring now, except for the well groomed people who were busy doing their grooming things as if this was just another song on the radio playing unawares in the background.

Hinata wondered exactly when the swap had happened, and when the _real _Pink Hair was coming back.

Why was this new person so mad at that boy anyway...?

Was it because he had brought a dog into the shop and it had gone and done its business behind one of those shiny-leaved plants dotted everywhere? Or maybe it was because they couldn't find the dog. She did not know.

The hand gestures were becoming more erratic, the victim of this one-sided conversation nodding whenever she paused for breath, and sending pleading looks towards his colleagues whenever she turned round.

She...might just be getting it now. Why the woman disliked this boy so. As Hinata looked back at the laminated flooring, she saw small brownish pools dotted around in the same shapes, leading from the door, to the chair he had been sitting on. Hairs from the boy's scruffy coat glued themselves to the material of the cushioned chair, covering it like a pattern.

This boy was most strange. It wasn't raining outside, and his coat couldn't have been _that_ bad. But, then again, the fur did look very...mangy.

He really didn't carry much regard for other peoples things, having already began taking chunks out of the padded vinyl seat beneath him; his long nails like claws digging mercilessly through the spongy stuffing.

Hinata glanced back at the Scary Girl, and was horrified when she found herself looking straight into piercing slits of black. These people were like vampires...

Her thoughts were broken as another piercing shriek was let loose, granting some color back to her face. The overly expressive Pink Haired fraud stopped to breath and had caught site of the gaping yellow holes at the side of the boy's chair. Courtesy of the Devil's Spawn itself.

Like many others in the room, Hinata found herself staring, and without much guilt at all.

He was just so..._odd. _Through the leak in her damn of vocabulary, he was odd. Different, was not really the word, and neither was bad or 'uncouth', as she had heard the decoy say.

The boy's hood had fallen away at some stage, revealing the messiest hair Hinata had ever seen. His eyes had the same sharp and piercing edge that she had witnessed first hand only a few moments earlier, and seemed to cage this primal urgency to tear and claw away at everything in site.

Another growl and his face contorted further, mouth drawing back in a snarl to reveal those teeth again, sharper then ever, and protruding further then Hinata had ever thought possible for a human.

He reminded her of a puppy, but a vicious one that really didn't want to be taken home for Christmas. She didn't mind. The itch was becoming more of a tingle that grew with every second that she stared.

She knew it was rude, but some things were just meant to be awed and admired so.

Once again, the shadow resided itself over her small frame, and she broke out of her thoughts to see the man with tight clothes standing behind her. She blushed as he flashed her dazzling smile; his shiny black hair smoothed to perfection all the way around his head, reflecting the brightness of the lights lined on the ceiling.

Things were quiet again, and she noticed that neither the fraud nor Pink Hair had returned. What was this man here for if they were no where in sight; he should have been trying to find them, not smile at her.

The man seemed to take her silence as an unspoken question of some sort.

'Hey!" He exclaimed enthusiastically, one hand on his hip while the other pointed at her in mock accusation through the mirror. "What's wrong with you! You're lookin' kinda down to me!"

More silence.

"Why worry, when you have me to style your hair into greatness worthy of my infamous _Nice Guy_ smile! Complete with thumbs up and the everlasting impression of Konoha's most beautiful beast burned into your memory of good times, my little Hyuuga friend!"

If the boy was odd, then this man was simply different.

Even though he was trying to make casual conversation, Hinata found it too hard to listen as her attention fled as far right as it would go without her having to move her head, what with this different and... 'Unique' person trying his best to keep the scissors in his hand level.

That boy had calmed down a little, and was now slumped back against his chair; legs perched in front of him with his hands jammed into the pockets of his coat. He must have noticed her frequent glances and looks of curiosity, but if he did, then he didn't seem to mind.

The man continued to chat away happily to himself, swinging his hips to whatever tune was on the radio as he swiftly cut through Hinata's thick bangs to fully reveal her eyes, half-lidded and unsure in her reluctance.

Ignoring the man behind her as politely as she could when he started to 'do his thang', Hinata looked at herself through the mirror that she wasn't on good terms with.

Maybe this mirror wasn't as bad as she made it out to be...

Without thinking, Hinata turned to look at the boy next to her. He was side-glancing; his eyebrows no longer furrowed and his mouth set to a line as she assumed they normally would have been.

He looked bored, but he was still looking at her.

A chime resounded once more as the door was opened, Neji leaning inside as he looked for Hinata.

After thanking the tightly clothed-man and the new lady at the table with a pre-rehearsed speech, Hinata was led out of the salon with the feel of eyes piercing through the back of her head. And she smiled.

------------------------

It was only a few weeks later when Hinata realized what the pink haired lady was really angry about.

That boy had had fleas.

* * *

Okay, so there's the story I wanted to write before it got away. Shamoe! )0-o(

'Bubblewrap' is a random and completely irrelevant title XD I just felt like typing it before it wormed it's way into anything else )0.o( Though that would be interesting...(I feel an evil laugh coming on, but you know what, I'm gonna let it slide XD). Please Please PLEASE review Yes I'm speaking to you look into my eyes and tell me you don't want to leave a review..

Alright, well, there's a couple of things that I tried to make obvious, like the fact that the woman with the pink hair is Sakura's mother (Uchiha compund thing, pink hair, almost skitso mood swings - no offence to Sakura -), and the man in tight clothing is Gai, probably working on his day off from being a manly ninja –cough-

And there were two others there as well, Kiba and Hana (Hooded Boy and Scary Lady XD)

I'll throw this in as well:

'_They were saying some even weirder things now, about how a friend, who seemed to be a boy, had left her in a bag of rubbish with nothing more then a phone who had been calling her something that left her deviated and outlawed.'_

It's supposed to mean one of their boyfriends dumped them with nothing more than a phone call that left her devastated and outraged. (It's how Hinata might have heard it, I guess)

Oh, and the nanny was someone I made up, hence the persistent dodging of her real name. I could have given her a name, but I didn't want to because it didn't seem worth it at the time. She wasn't supposed to be there for _that_ long , so it's probably a little sloppy Woe betide me (slams head on table and cries)

Review, if you feel like it! (I will reply!)

Note: I don't own the song that Gai was singing either, if any of you recognise it at all XD (It WAS a song, but the little squiggly lines disappeared when this came up, so it's just text now ;;) It was by Chere anyway.

Review or I'll go back to the Beyblade fandom!...


	2. Second

**I'm back! :D Anyway, this is the second one-shot which I wrote at 4 am this morning thanks to Insomnia ;; I have to go back to school tommorow -cries and sobs loudly- This one is way shorter than the last one and I'm gonna try and keep it that way cause people get board sitting in one place for too long XD Only one more chapter after this and then I'm done with the Naruto fandom, so enjoy while you can (_if_ you can XD)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters.**

* * *

The class was all but silent, save for the light banter and some of the harsher strokes of pencil across paper. Iruka found himself guiltlessly doing next to no work at all as he sat back comfortably in his chair, feet reclined leisurely underneath the desk. He had never really realised how well this class could be behaved if they really put their minds to it.

The sun was high in the sky and he was enjoying the rays that spread through the mud printed windows. Life was good as he waited for his coffee to cool and his chair to warm; soaking in the unusually calm and loose atmosphere like the lapping waves of a sparkling ocean in the summer.

He really didn't want to jinx it; honestly…however, something just wasn't right about the level of quiet he was experiencing. Most of the children's heads were down, scribbling furiously as they each cunningly worked on self-proclaimed master-pieces with the help of numerous crayon packs that circulated the desks; a few conferring with their alleys from time to time to make sure that the stick men looked just right, and that two hair ribbons really were better than one.

No - although the idea that he may have finally gotten through to them that working paid of more than talking and throwing stuff around the classroom wasn't as fun as it seemed – he knew that this was not the victory that would end the war. Something was off about the way they interacted with one another; like the fun had suddenly been drained from shooting spit balls at the aisle below, or the girl whose hair was long enough to be tied to the chair she was sitting in without her even realising until she tried to chase after her stolen pencil case.

Even Naruto was…unusually quiet…seeing as _he wasn't even in his **SEAT!!!**_

Where was that little…!? …absent. Alright, so maybe that was one of the reasons why everything was so quiet. Maybe the class generally was interested in working. Maybe he was over analysing things. Maybe his coffee had finally cooled down to a drinkable temperature. Maybe…just maybe.

-----------------------------------------

At the back of the class, Kiba struggled to keep his eyes open, despite the unbearably suffocating silence that was the collective noise of deep concentration, and the notion that he should probably have fixed that problem by now – unfortunately, his eyes just didn't seem to care for his predicament at all. There were people to the sides and below that all had there eyes open…probably had had breakfast…maybe even a few hours sleep…that's where he was going wrong, he was sure.

His eyelids felt like a tonne of led bricks that had sunk six miles underwater; the chewed up pencil in his limp hand sitting patiently waiting for Kiba to start carving his ideas down onto the pristine paper that sat perfectly before him in a snooty, unblemished manner. If he were fully awake, that paper would not only have had to taste the cold hard tang of graphite as it was mercilessly assaulted with every doodle that had already been dug out of the wooden desk in front of him - but it would also have had to die a slow agonising death as it was brutally balled up and hurled at the nearest unsuspecting blond -either Ino, or on good day, Naruto.

With his head lolling around from side to side occasionally, and a sliver of drool escaping his slack jaw to dribble down his chin unceremoniously, he vaguely wondered why no one had commented on it, let alone done something. Someone could have jumped him, snuck up beside him to bellow a wake up call in his highly sensitive ears, thrown something at him, anything…but nothing. Not a single glance or mention as far as his semi-alert conscience could tell. Things really weren't going well.

In fact, today sucked. It sucked big time. The usually speedy dash to school on all fours so as to arrive painfully late while still helping to get the blood pumping, had become a sloth like drag that not only had brought him to school early, but had also earned him 'helper' status, as he was immediately assigned to give out the class materials for the day with little to no enthusiasm what so ever. Of course Iruka sensei had picked up on the fact that Kiba was half heartedly flinging the pieces of paper to there roughly targeted destinations with no real conviction, and, like the good old sensei that he was, the chuunin made him pick up every sheet of paper and painstakingly set each one perfectly straight, smack bang in the middle of every desk.

He wasn't sure exactly what was keeping him awake, or why he hadn't just bailed out of there when Iruka sensei had left to get his coffee for the morning, but whatever it was, it had already been cursed and damned to every version of hell he could think of, with the exception of the classroom itself of course. That was a worse fate that seemed to have been especially reserved for him.

He snorted slightly as he felt something tap him lightly on the arm, but he didn't move. Probably the wind…from underneath the door…or something.

The tap went away for a while then came back, as a slight poke. He growled. Stupid cheap door. Couldn't do anything right. It was even making a noise….a slight whisper. It sounded human. Maybe someone was yodelling in the next country.

Kiba suddenly felt the urge to hit someone. Maybe the person making the noise. Maybe the thing poking his arm. Whichever was closer. They were invading his dozing time and deserved to be stopped from such evil manipulation. It was a conspiracy, he could tell.

To his languid dismay, the noise grew louder over a period of 5 minutes and he was sure it was the poke that accompanied it every 10 seconds. Kiba's fuse was out and he could take no more.

The evil would be stopped!

His arm lashed out from the side scrappily and clawed into thin air, earning a slight squeak and the distinct smell of fear. Heavy and putrid with a hint of adrenaline. His sheet of paper had drifted away like a parachute in its smug and mocking manner; floating with some kind of paper smirk.

He was going to maul it like no shredder ever could.

The smell was still fresh, and his eyes lifted with all the strength they could muster to track it down. He looked around blearily and yawned, trying to work the kinks out of his legs with a good stretch. Looking to the left slightly, he froze; legs still out stiffly and his back arched slightly.

Beside him, a stunned, cold sweating Hinata stared at him like he'd suddenly brandished a chain saw and slid on a ski mask with matching blood stains; her eyes wide and arms up in an instinctive attempt to protect herself. She was shrunk back and on the edge of her seat, pencil long forgotten. He suddenly realised that he had probably just attacked her. Or at least, that's how she probably saw it. She was obviously quite upset and he couldn't believe that she even looked like she might cry.

Hinata shrunk back a little more so that she looked even smaller and swallowed; waiting for him to make his next move like a deer in the headlights.

Iruka-sensei seemed unawares to the scene and continued to drink his latte with his feet perched comfortably on the desk. Today really was…

**Waahaaah!**

The coffee in his hands slipped and crashed to the floor; liquid jumping away from the shooting porcelain only to reacquaint itself with them when gravity took its toll seconds later.

Everyone turned round towards the back aisle to stare at Kiba with accusing and curious glances, whispering with a sense of conspiracy only children could be blessed with.

Kiba held on to his knee in pure agony while wrestling with himself in his chair, wriggling and yelping as he tried to stop the sting that made itself known over and over and over again in his back. It was like something was eating him alive! It didn't help that he had jumped so high when the first bout of pain came either, hence the resounding crack of his knee cap against the table and how he was drawn to tending to his knee or ripping his coat off to roll around the floor in an attempt to stop the splintering pain in his back, _all_ over his back. Whatever had decided to attack him, it was doing it well!

A chorus of laughter and howling broke out as they watched Kiba throw himself around recklessly due to an unseen force that was making a meal out of him as they looked on.

The foot-stamping laughter continued as Iruka moved in to help the struggling boy as he waded through the chairs and desks of some careless students that had stood up to get a better view.

On the last row, Shino watched Kiba howl and jerk in pain; a slight smirk hidden behind his collar.

* * *

0.o Weeeeeell, that's this one done ;;; I'm not sure why Kiba was so tired in the first place, but whatever XD I really didn't try to pair any of them off here, unlike in the last chapter where it was leaning towards Kiba/Hinata. At the end though there's Shino lookin out for Hinata in his own way, so maybe that counts. Poor Kiba, gettin attacked by bugs like that (an army sent by Shino to avenge Hinata :3) If you're into the Shino/Hinata pairing, then this story is actually under Kiba/Hinata, and I'm going to try and bring that through next chapter )0-0(

Review and I will reply! Flame me and I shall send Shino _and_ Kiba on you! Mwahahahahahaha!!! 


	3. Third

This is another one, I guess. It's supposed to be the last one, and I'm really not happy with it. I wrote it in under an hour and on a last minute whim

I think, I might, I MIGHT move the number of one-shots up from _3_ to _5_, becuase I think this ones a pretty crappy last addition, and 4 is a stupid even number XD

Anyway, this was inspired by a guy who came to my school to talk about the English Civil War. I'll tell you why later, cause I don't want to say much up here right now.

Thank you to **Miss0made**, **sailormarsfire93**, **Neji's fangirl**, and **Haruka-Hyuuga **for reviewing. You guys are great! XD

Read on, dude!

_

* * *

After what seemed like an eternity, she lifted her head to look at who had sat next to her. His eyes were closed and he had leaned back onto the door, exhausted. _

* * *

Kiba stared on at the scene in blood stilling shock. A scene that caused his heart to stop, his jaw to slacken, and his pupils to dilate in an instinctual reaction to what he was now literally faced with. His lunch would be on its way back up soon, and he knew that he should try whatever it took to hold it down; until it was safe to even breathe again. Akamaru was whimpering violently behind his leg; trying to vanquish the smell with something as familiar as him. 

He wished more than anything that he could be so ignorant and do the same.

He liked to think that he had managed to grow up in the slightly rougher part of Konoha, and that he had a certain street sense that Hinata or even Shino didn't have. He hadn't spent his early childhood inside playing board games with his family next to a warm fire; neither had he learnt to ride a bike with his seemingly non-existent father.

Kiba knew the streets of Konoha inside out, and the great outdoors had taught him more than he needed to know in terms of natural occurrences, but nothing…_nothing_ would have been able to prepare him for this.

In the back of his mind, an alarm bell was ringing violently as he vaguely took in the information that was being spewed at him by a melancholy voice that could only ever seem to drone on in the background the way it did now.

The almost fully dismembered corpse that lay in front of him was like no dead animal he had ever come across, and he'd been a ninja long enough to realise that people did these things to other people for reasons as simple as beliefs, or even places of birth.

This entire town had been massacred; an event that was apparently not uncommon in the business of a shinobi. He had heard talk of the Uchiha mass murderer that had escaped Konoha bearing the blood of his family on the once pristine Anbu uniform that the village had been proud to give him. He'd then seen the last survivor of said clan at his school; seen how this unspeakable event had affected him to the point where his childhood would be forever lost in a sea of hatred and target-specific bloodlust.

It had shocked the town as well as his family.

Something like this had once happened on his doorstep.

But _nothing _as horrible as what he was standing in right now.

Shino watched from the side as Kiba fought a losing battle to keep it together long enough for them to move the bodies.

He had to admit, it was disturbing. It may have been the last time they saw something like this for a long while. Thanks to this unexpected outcome, Team 8 would most probably not be getting another C-Rank mission for a long, long time.

In theory, this should have been the simplest thing to do. Hiking across the country just to check on a remote village in the middle of nowhere had seemed easy enough. The Hokage had received word of it just last week, and Shino would say that by the look on her deceivingly youthful face, she had thought nothing of it. Naturally, to find such an isolated place with such questionable sources would take some work, so the next best thing would be to send one of the best teams in terms of tracking that she could get a hold of at the time.

No doubt when she got wind of this, the Hokage would have them all sent gift-baskets and a welcome place at the hospital's mental health clinic. The murderers must have wanted to commit such a barbaric crime without being noticed, probably just by taking advantage of the village's elusive location. Well, if that were the case, then the anonymous tip-off they had received concerning the town's state was still a mystery. Or so Kurenai had told them.

But there was no doubt in Shino's mind that the message was sent by the same sick people, or person, just looking for another thrill as they watched the news spread around the country like wildfire. Some kind of sadistic ego boost, maybe.

No, it must have been something more than that, because not only had this massacre been efficiently planned down to the last screaming infant, but the nature of the killings would have allowed them to get away with anything before finishing off their pray in the most gruesome ways imaginable.

Shino realised that he was mentally contradicting himself; something he knew would not go down well if he didn't manage to get his thoughts under control in time to go home. Because that's really all he wanted to do right now. Be sick and go home.

"Hinata…"

A gaunt, stern face looked up from his status report to look at Kiba shortly before clearing his throat and reading once again from the top of the page in a voice that not even a therapist would listen to.

* * *

_The sky outside had turned dark just hours after they had arrived. They weren't that surprised when they didn't receive a cosy welcome upon entering the isolated village, what with the people probably not used to seeing strangers. But there wasn't anyone there to even stop them before they entered or glare at them as they walked past with other wary spectators looking on._

_It was so unlike what they had experienced in the last town they stopped by on the way. Even if it was a couple of days ago now._

* * *

"Shino…Shino, where is Hinata?!" 

He looked up again as yet another inquiry was released from the boy who couldn't seem to take his eyes away from the very corpse he was trying to explain.

The other boy, with the unnecessarily high collar, inclined his head almost unnoticeably at the man with the clip board before answering his team mate.

"…She's outside…"

_

* * *

_

_Door after door, every one of the inhabitants was dead, blood seeping out from the windows as various hand prints smudged thick crimson on the dirty glass, desperate screams still echoing off the walls that were stained with the blood and flesh of the dead._

_Kurenai's breath hitched as her footfall crunched with the dislocation of an already lifeless hand, still gripping on to the door frame; it's only escape._

* * *

The older Shinobi - the one that Kurenai managed to steal from another mission that took place not thirty-miles west of where they were now - painstakingly went back over the pages to find the starting point of the report once more. Although he wasn't from their village, he had been intrigued by the fact that there had been a massacre that he didn't know about, and so close to there temporary base as well. A message had been sent back to Konoha for more help, but for now, he would have to do. 

Shino listened to the report for the first time.

_

* * *

_

_The stench of the dead hung heavily in the air. It would seem the further they went, the darker it became. Another dimly lit corridor ended with a door that couldn't open fully; more dismembered corpses still trying to get away, to escape. _

* * *

A girl, the body of this girl, had been raped so many times that her ribs and pelvis were broken, and she died from choking on a splintered piece of bone from her jaw. 

She was raped because she was beautiful. She was tortured because it was fun. She was killed because she had been a part of this village, just like everyone else.

She looked so much like someone he knew.

Shinohad watched Kiba slowly back away from the body and stumble out the door - Akamaru following closely behind, no doubt also looking for Hinata. She had disappeared after the first three houses. He assumed that she had gone with Kurenai to look for a suitable place to bury the dead. That would be the least bloody thing he could think of.

Kurenai had found a small wooden bridge that crossed over a dried out river. From what she could see, it looked like the best place she had found so far.

She slid down the bank haphazardly, dead leaves fluttering slightly as she past them. Everything was dead around here. It was lucky, if anything, that there were no bodies around here either. She looked back up at the bridge and sighed; the moon half hidden behind the rotting structure as if it was guilty for killing all those people.

The jounin wondered how the rest of the team was fairing, especially Hinata, who would no doubt be feeling the after affects of this the most.

She let out another sigh. This was going to make one long mission report.

Her scent was difficult to trace, to say the least. His system was being bombarded with dozens of uniquely disgusting smells that were replaced every time he past another house.

He could hear her sobbing quietly to herself, and when he finally found her, she was sitting on the door step of the smallest house a little ways away from all the others.

His harsh panting ghosted in front of him in the cold night air, his chest burning slightly. More out of worry than anything else, he was sure.

"Hinata."

No answer.

"Hinata!"

Still no answer.

He sat down heavily next to her as she continued to cry, the soft shudders and hiccups she let out on occasion sounding more pained to him than any muffled scream ever could.

"Hinata…" he wasn't sure how to handle these situations, and what was even worse was that she wasn't even answering him. He could only sit there as both Akamaru and Hinata seemed to wait for him to do something.

He had only ever held her once, during the Chuunin exams when she had collapsed, and he would do it again now to comfort her. But he couldn't. He just couldn't.

No matter how hard he tried, Kiba's arm would not raise and the words would not flow as he sat there next to a slowly dieing Hinata who needed more than anything to find some source of comfort. She needed a friend. She needed him.

For now all he could do was be there as he waited for her to stop crying – his teeth clamped down into his fist while his eyes gazed listlessly at the floor, trying to figure out what to do.

Akamaru let out a long, painful howl; the sound haunting over the still air of this ghosts town.

* * *

I don't know XD I got the inspiration for this from a guy who visited my school for a history thing yesterday. Kevin Hicks (the guy) used to be in the army, and at one point he told us about when he went to Ireland as a new soldier, in the civil war between the Catholics and the Protestants. A bomn had gone off, and amongst the dead they found a what looked like a pile of fabric, but was infact, a girl. She had been tortured and raped by so many different men that her ribs and pelvis were broken, and she actually died from choking on a piece of splintered bone from her jaw. Just like I put in the story there,

His exact words after that:

_"She was raped because she was beautiful. She was tortured because it was fun. She was killed because she was engaged to a protestant - the enemy"_

Her fiance was found across the street with a bullet in his head.

Very sad story.

Oh yeah, and when Shino says that the body reminded him so much of someone he knew, he means Hinata, and that's also why Kiba was so freaked out by it too.

I know, I know, the ending was stupid and crap. _But, _if you read the beginning properly, you would have found the real ending. XD Put it there cause I was finished with it, and bored too.

The writing in_ italics _are supposed to what has already happended, except for the ending at the top...which is after the story stops...okay...

Anyway, review and I'll reply!

Let's see now, I'll need around...4 more reviews before I think about writing the next one-shot :3


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